Driving Wheelchair Vans Safely

Driving Wheelchair Vans Safely

Wheelchair Vans Driving Safety Advice

Most teens receive enough basic training to drive a vehicle, but teens are overwhelmingly involved in traffic accidents. This is largely due to inexperience, but teens driving wheelchair vans face unique problems. As many accidents are related to misuse of both on-board and external technology, teen drivers seem to be especially ill-suited to using handicap vans.

At the same time, senior drivers tend have a great deal of experience. While they have fewer accidents than teens, these individuals often suffer from extreme overconfidence in their own driving skills. Age tends to dull reflexes, and even small accidents can be severely injurious or fatal due to ill health.

Unfortunately, the same factors that make teens and senior citizens ill-suited to driving are present in many individuals with disabilities. While these individuals may well have passed a driver’s course and are even licensed to drive with adaptive equipment, many are overconfident in their ability to drive in a new situation. It is wise that anyone driving a wheelchair van take the time necessary to acclimate him or herself to the experience of actually driving the vehicle.

As such, it is important to practice good driver safety. This means reducing the overall distractions in the vehicle, especially those brought by cellphones and musical devices. A driver that is more focused on the road is, after all, less likely to cause an accident. One should also take stock of the side effects of medication that is being taken, and determine whether or not it is actually safe to be on the road.

Finally, one should take the time to actually drive in a defensive manner. This means giving at least an 11 second visual lead time to the driver in front, and to make sure that cars in front are followed no less than four seconds behind. Doing so can give a driver more time to stop, and thus give drivers the ability to safely avoid an accident. It can be difficult to drive a wheelchair van, but doing so is the only safe way to be on the road. Overconfidence and distractions can be killers, but cal, defensive driving can save lives.

Always remember to concentrate fully on the road, and make sure that drive as cautiously as possible. Just because you are able to drive, after all, does not give you license to drive dangerously.